Sun and Moon

Mineral Moon

The moon isn't grey like we see it in the sky. Our eyes aren't sensitive enough to see the colour that is there.

This is a stack of 50 images taken on a standard Canon DSLR using a 55-250mm kit zoom lens. The individual images have been added together and the saturation of the final image stretched to bring out the colour.

The blues are titanium containing minerals and the browns are iron containing minerals.

By John Press

Sun Spots

The surface of the sun is not a tranquil place. Apart from being 5500C there are magnetic storms. Where the magnetic field lines break through the surface the area cools by around 1000C, making the areas appear darker compared to the surroundings.

By Paul James.

Total Lunar Eclipse.

The moon passes into the shadow of the earth. At the point of totality, the earth's atmosphere refracts light from the sun and the red portion of this light is bent towards the moon and creates the effect of the blood moon.

This image was taken with a standard DSLR and a 55-250mm zoom lens on a Star Adventurer tracking mount on the morning of 21st January 2019.

By John Press.

The Moon

Waxing Moon taken on 22 April 2024  with a Celestron 9.25" SCT and an ASI294MC camera.

By Paul James.

Sunspot group AR3664

Source of the great Aurora display of 10 May 2024, taken on 9 May 2024 using a Celestron 9.25" SCT/6.3 Reducer and an ASI294MC camera coupled with Baader Solar and Altair IR/UV filters - best 48% of 1205 frames at an exposure of 2.8ms gain=0

By Paul James.